


The Old Man & The Sea(boy)

by elltern



Series: The Life and Times of Elliott Lake [1]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood, Fluff, Gen, MerMay 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elltern/pseuds/elltern
Summary: Willy finds a merboy stuck in one of his crab-pots, and eventually grows to enjoy the boy's presence.  When the merboy (who named himself Elliott) wishes to become human, Willy sets out to fulfill one of Rasmodius's impossible tasks to make that wish come true.
Series: The Life and Times of Elliott Lake [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932145
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> Made this for Mermay but never got to posting it. Well, here it is.

Willy was never good at acting surprised. He was, frankly, too accepting of most absurdities. So when he first saw the merboy, hand trapped in a crabpot with slim fingers reaching for the lobster inside, Willy's only reaction was to drop his pipe and breathe out a chuckle.

"So you're the one who's been emptying my pots," he crouched down, looking over the pier, "got yourself into a little bind, now, didn't ye lad?"

The merboy's green eyes darted to and from the crabpot as he fruitlessly tugged his hand from the latch, screaming inanities in his mother tongue. Willy has never seen a mermaid before, though he had a feeling they weren't meant to look as emaciated as the merboy was. The boy's green skin greyed, and his red hair clung to his scalp like a drowned man to a lifeboat, thin and covered in oil. It was his chest that set Willy off, though. After closer examination, he could see the deep, net-lined gashes criss-crossed over a fragile ribcage. "Calm yerself," Willy soothed "Lemme get it for you--"

"Please don't kill me," the boy cried out. 

Admittedly, that took Willy aback. He scratched the cap over his head, pulling away from the merboy. "Aye. I have no ill intent," he said. If the boy wasn't shuddering, the look he gave might have actually scared Willy. "So you want me to leave you? Would you like a crabpot for a hand?" 

The merboy opened his mouth, but closed it again. He looked to the side, biting the thin muscles of his cheek. That was as much permission as Willy was going to get. 

Willy released the crabpot. Willy caught the antsy lobster inside, just as the merboy's hand slipped out from the latch's grasp. The merboy twisted his bony wrist, tracing the mark left by the pot.

"Thank you," the merboy said, not meeting Willy's gaze.

Willy smiled. He tossed the lobster into the water in front of the boy, and the merboy turned quick enough to catch it in his hands. He looked at the lobster. Then, he looked at Willy.

"Me pap doesn't take kindly to thieves. You're lucky I'm on crab duty today," Willy stood up. "Next time, just ask for a meal, aye?"

The merboy's blank eyes shone in the morning light. He grinned from ear to ear, then dove back into the water. Willy had a feeling they'd meet again.


	2. Passages

"What's that in your hand?"

Willy was used to the merboy's questions by now, though the responsibility of being a human ambassador to fishes weighed heavy on his shoulders. He flipped the book in his lap and brought it to the side of the boat, careful to shift his weight just enough so he wouldn't drop it into the water. "You probably don't have paper under the sea, do ye?" he deduced, "Well, we humans write things on 'em, then we sandwich 'em between leather or wood so we can crack 'em open and read. They're called books."

The merboy pulled himself further from the water, reaching out to touch it. He pulled away, suddenly, watching as the paper inside went dark with moisture. "I hurt it," the boy said.

Willy chuckled. "Nay, you merely stained it. Happens all the time," Willy brought the book back onto the boat, flipping through the pages. "How about I read it out for ye? Usually these ol' tomes are full of stories, but this one's just poetry, so it's meant to be read out anyhow."

The merboy arched a brow. "Read?"

"Aye, it's when...," Willy trailed off, realizing he wasn't smart enough to describe the very act of understanding words. "Well. Just listen for a bit. You'll get it soon enough."

He turned to the first page and began to recite the passages he knew by heart. The sea was calm that afternoon, and his father's rickety boat rocked to the rhythm of the words, disturbed only by a young, enraptured merboy clinging to the side.


	3. Destinations

The boy picked up reading quicker than any human child Willy's ever known. The months turned to years and by the time Willy's father passed, all of Willy's humble bookshelf was stained with saltwater fingerprints. The boy had grown, too--not quite as big as Willy (yet), but big enough that Willy wouldn't be able to call him a "boy" anymore.

"--and then his anger grew and he emerged from his tent, charging into war and turning rivers red in his grief," the merboy recited, his tail slapping the sand beside Willy's chum bucket, "and then the gods who sided with Troy had to conspire a way to beat this hulking monster of a man, then they remembered that his heel--"

"Aye, I remember lad, I read the book too," Willy laughed. He picked up the chum bucket behind him before the boy's tail could spill it, pulling a bit of bait out and placing it on his fishing rod. The beach was empty today, and the wind blew red leaves from the forest, the sea fragrant with the decay of fall. "That must be the last of 'em, though. I won't be able to pick up any other books for ye until the next winter, when the travellers come around in Stardew Valley."

The merboy fell silent for the first time since he came. Willy savoured the the undisturbed call of the seagulls, before shifting in the quiet. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

The merboy laid his chest on the sand, staring into the horizon. "Being human must be an adventure," he said.

Willy smirked. "Our lives aren't nearly as exciting as the stories say," he said.

The merboy shook his head. "It's not that. I know few of you go out and battle armies or anything," he said, "but I just...you have the world at your fingertips, Willy. Do you realize that?"

"'Fraid not, lad."

"There isn't a single place where we can't find your bones. No valley too steep, no sea too deep, no star you haven't dreamt of reaching. You humans live for such a short time, but you _live_ ," the merboy mused. "Us merfolk don't have such ambitions. Maybe we did, once, before you humans made it hard to just get by, let alone prosper. But even if we did, I don't think we'd ever have the curiosity to die where the water can't bury us. All the merfolk want is to survive. But there's so much more to this world, Willy." 

Willy stared at the merboy, ignorant of the seagull munching on his chum bucket beside him. The merboy looked to Willy, slamming his scaled hands on the sand. "I don't want to survive anymore," he said, "I want to be alive."

The seagull squawked in surprise at the boy's proclamation, flying away and snapping Willy from his trance. Willy blinked, hacking out a cough. He hummed.

"Did I say something wrong?" the merboy faltered.

"No! Aye, no, not at all," Willy chortled. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" 

"Well, it isn't important. I just thought..." Willy considered his words. "You should try your hand in writing, lad. Might do you some good one day."

The merboy's eyes gleamed. "Like the writers in your books?" he said, "Do you think I'd be any good at it?"

Willy grinned. "I think you'd be one of the best."

In retrospect, Willy may or may not have regretted filling the boy with such pride at that early of an age. But remembering the joy beaming from the merboy's face, and the eager requests for writing supplies after, Willy could never bring himself to regret for long.


End file.
